Effect of Foliar application of Boron and IAA on some Quantitative and Qualtative of Barhi Date Palm

• Abdul Samad Abbood Abdullah1*, Abdulameer Raheem Obaid2 , Hassan Abudlimam Faisal1

  Author

    A field study was carried out in a date palm orchard located at Basrah governorate, Iraq, to study the impact of foliar application of boron and IAA on the fruit set, yield and some physical and chemical attributes of Barhi date palm fruits. The experiment was carried out using 27 uniform and productive palms in a 3 × 3 factorial experiment in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The treatments were three levels (0, 100 and 150 mg L⁻¹) both of boron and IAA. The results showed that increasing the boron and IAA concentrations had an overall positive effect on fruit set and yield and a negative effect on the developing of parthenocarpic fruits. The highest fruit set (86.00%) was obtained with the combined application of 150 mg L⁻¹ boron and 150 mg L⁻¹ IAA along with lowest parthenocarpic fruits (13.00%). This was also the treatment that gave the heaviest bunch (14.26 kg) and total output (85.56 kg palm⁻¹). The physical attributes of fruit were enhanced with highest length, diameter, volume and weight of 3.29cm, 2.64cm, 11.62cm³ and 11.18g, respectively. The most highest total sugars (67.10%), dry matter (69. 61%), boron concentration (34.19 mg kg⁻¹) and IAA level (36.30 µg g⁻¹) were also observed in the same treatment. In summary, the best treatment to enhance reproductive, yield and fruit quality of Barhi date palm under the present study conditions was the combined application of B and IAA at150 mg L⁻¹ each.

• pdf